Learning Artifacts Research Articles

Learning Buckets: Helping Teachers Introduce Flexibility in the Management of Learning Artifacts Across Spaces

Technology offers rich opportunities for learning across different physical and virtual spaces. However, most of current across-spaces proposals are either highly teacher-centered, inflexible in the students’ self-management of learning artifacts during the enactment, or allow the teacher little/no control of such students’ management of artifacts. Moreover, these proposals tend to be disconnected from the practices and tools that are usual in the classroom. How can we achieve a middle ground between keeping the teacher in control of across-spaces situations and, at the same time, providing students with a degree of flexibility to manage learning artifacts? Aiming to address such a challenge we propose the notion of learning bucket, and the Bucket-Server, a system implementing such a notion. A learning bucket is a container of learning artifacts which are generated and/or accessed across-spaces by the students during the enactment, according to constraints configured by teachers at design time. The responsive evaluation conducted, based on a feature analysis and a pilot study with experts, suggests that learning buckets can help evolve from teacher- to student-centered approaches, while maintaining the teacher in control of students’ actions. The evaluation also indicates that the Bucket-Server surpasses the support provided by alternative proposals to across-spaces learning.

Lessons from the field: One teacher’s findings from using the project approach in a 6th grade classroom

While we have known about the benefits of project-based learning for decades, it has been difficult to maintain momentum in learning how to do it well, especially as the policy context in education turned toward high-stakes accountability measures in the early 2000s. Currently, many schools across the country are incorporating project-based approaches, but few have provided a portrait of how to do so in this current context. This is the story of how one sixth grade teacher, Mr. Waspe, successfully developed strategies for conducting an inquiry-based pedagogy called the Project Approach (Katz, Chard, & Kogan, 2014). Mr. Waspe’s work revealed several consistent critical considerations that became design features for using the Project Approach—time, choosing a researchable topic, addressing curriculum and standards, assessing student artifacts of learning, appropriate instructional tools, modeling and providing student feedback, and audience. This article provides readers with a list and descriptions of these concrete considerations as well as a descriptive portrait of Mr. Waspe’s artful approach to project-based learning.

Research Integration in Information Systems Education: Students’ Perceptions on Learning Strategies, Skill Development, and Performance

Aim/Purpose: This study aimed to explore whether students’ self-reported use of various learning strategies affected their perceptions on different course activities as well as their perceived performance in terms of both cognitive learning outcomes and general skills. Background: In a highly active learning environment that incorporates research into teaching, the effective use of various learning strategies is considered of high importance for the successful engagement of students. Yet, this line of research has mainly focused on individual learning. Shifting from individual to collaborative learning settings, the current study investigated whether students’ use of self-regulated learning, peer learning, and help seeking strategies influenced their perceptions on both the group activities and the respective outcomes. Methodology: At the beginning of the course, 81 first semester postgraduate students self-reported the level of use of self-regulated learning, peer learning, and help seeking strategies by filling in the respective subscales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Then, groups of 3 or 4 students were formed and instructed to create several learning artifacts of different types and conduct a peer-tutoring session, based on a topic assigned to them by the teacher. Additionally, the same groups conducted a research project of their own choice within course topics. Students’ final grade served as an indicator of their academic performance. At the end of the semester, students filled in a questionnaire eliciting their perceptions on the process and the outputs of the course activities. Finally, through statistical analysis of students’ responses to the questionnaires, the influence of learning strategies on students’ perceptions and their academic performance was examined. Contribution: Our findings contribute to the literature regarding the research-teaching nexus in higher education settings. More specifically, the study shows how students’ self-reported use of learning strategies affects students’ perceptions on the activities they were engaged in, their achievement of cognitive learning outcomes, and their skills development in a research-integrated course design. Findings: Students perceived differently the value of producing and studying learning artifacts. Students who scored higher in the self-regulated learning and peer learning subscales of MSLQ perceived their role as more active in the preparation of the presentation for the peer-tutoring session, which was the artifact that required higher level of interaction among the group members. Students’ final grades were influenced partially by their self-reported use of different learning strategies. Recommendations for Practitioners: Integrating research into teaching through the assignment of research-related tasks to students can promote students’ acquisition of domain knowledge and research skills. The merits of this approach can be further strengthened by having students working in groups and providing the outputs of their involvement in the research-related activities as learning material for their peers. Furthermore, students’ individual characteristics (e.g., use of learning strategies and preferences should be taken into account when designing course activities). Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should continue to explore the way that various learning strategies influence different aspects of the learning process, especially in the achievement of cognitive learning outcomes and the development of general skills. Impact on Society: Creating learning environments that foster students’ active engagement with the course material and peer collaboration should be a vital goal of higher education institutes as it can improve students’ performance and promote the necessary skills for self-directed and autonomous learning, a key competence in the modern workplace. Future Research: In this study, both cognitive learning outcomes and general skills were assessed by students’ final grade. In a future study, distinguishing these different types of learning outcomes would allow us to examine in more detail the impact of students’ learning strategies and course activities on the accomplishment of cognitive learning outcomes and general skills.

The impact of a professional development model for a mobilized science curriculum: a case study of teacher changes

Background and purpose: To date, there has been little research on the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) for delivering a mobile technology-supported science curriculum. To address this, a TPD model for a science curriculum supported by mobile technology was developed and evaluated in this paper. The study reported focuses on the establishment of the TPD model and exploration of its impact on teacher behaviors in the curriculum implementation.Sample, design, and methods: In the study, two representative science teachers’ implementation of the science curriculum was presented together with an in-depth study of the TPD sessions. The data from the teacher-led PD working sessions, classroom observation and teacher interview were collected. Mixed methods and case study were used to analyze the teacher performance on the PD working sessions and on the curriculum implementation.Results: Our findings suggested that teachers benefited from the structured TPD which provided opportunities for sharing, extensive feedback, and reflection of the curriculum implementation. It showed that teachers had transformed questioning from traditional ways into constructivist-oriented patterns in the classroom. More student-centered activities were conducted and complemented with teachers’ various scaffolds for learning. Analysis of learning artifacts attested to improvements in students’ conceptual understanding of science.Conclusion: TPD refers to a continuing and dynamic system for PD which needs to be changed and elaborated based on teacher needs, school context and the problems and challenges encountered in the teaching practice. TPD development and teachers’ growth in the belief and competences on the instruction constitute a mutual evolution process. Their evolution could guarantee the apt enactment and spread of the curriculum innovation to impact depth, to sustain and to spread.

Classification without labels: learning from mixed samples in high energy physics

Modern machine learning techniques can be used to construct powerful models for difficult collider physics problems. In many applications, however, these models are trained on imperfect simulations due to a lack of truth-level information in the data, which risks the model learning artifacts of the simulation. In this paper, we introduce the paradigm of classification without labels (CWoLa) in which a classifier is trained to distinguish statistical mixtures of classes, which are common in collider physics. Crucially, neither individual labels nor class proportions are required, yet we prove that the optimal classifier in the CWoLa paradigm is also the optimal classifier in the traditional fully-supervised case where all label information is available. After demonstrating the power of this method in an analytical toy example, we consider a realistic benchmark for collider physics: distinguishing quark- versus gluon-initiated jets using mixed quark/gluon training samples. More generally, CWoLa can be applied to any classification problem where labels or class proportions are unknown or simulations are unreliable, but statistical mixtures of the classes are available.

Teaching linguistics to low-level English language users in a teacher education programme: an action research study

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study is to investigate the outcomes of teacher educator-initiated action research (AR) process at a teacher education institution in southern Argentina. This process was triggered by a challenge which emerged in the 2016 academic year: how to teach a linguistics module through English to low-level English language users in the first year of a programme designed for teaching English as a foreign language at primary and secondary schools in Argentina. Such a situation became a pedagogical opportunity to engage in AR with a group of student-teachers during a whole academic year. Framed in qualitative research, data collection included journals, teaching and learning artefacts, and interviews. Results show that the integration of content and language learning helped student-teachers develop their language proficiency and strengthen their awareness as language users and future teachers.

Exploring Practitioners’ Meaning of “Ethics,” “Compliance,” and “Corporate Social Responsibility” Practices: A Communities of Practice Perspective

Companies seeking to effectively manage the ethical dimensions of their business have created formal and informal practices, including those with the labels “ethics and compliance” and “corporate social responsibility” (CSR). However, there is little research describing how practitioners who create and implement these practices understand their meaning and relationship. Leveraging a communities of practice theoretical perspective, this qualitative study proposes that these practices can be studied as artifacts of managerial learning. Thematic analysis of interviews with senior managers suggests that practices have diverse meaning, with only informal relationships between them in most cases. Theoretically, this research offers a new lens through which to view compliance and CSR practices as socially negotiated, contextual, and dynamic. Practically, it suggests that there may be new opportunities for learning if managers create practices through an intentional exploration of shared meaning.

Key challenges and future directions for educational research on scientific argumentation

AbstractAt the 2015 NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning Through Research Annual International Conference, a group of scholars held an extended pre‐conference workshop to discuss key challenges and future directions faced by argumentation researchers around the world. This wide‐ranging group of facilitators and participants represented varying perspectives and experiences with argumentation research. Learning artifacts from the workshop were collected and analyzed utilizing multiple qualitative coding techniques. Analysis of these artifacts revealed five major themes that emerged from the NARST workshop describing this group of scholars’ views on current issues and potential directions for the field of argumentation research. These themes center on: (i) establishing a classroom culture that values argumentation; (ii) how differing theoretical frameworks challenge how researchers communicate findings; (iii) the challenge of assessing various aspects of scientific argumentation in a valid and reliable fashion; (iv) pedagogical challenges in supporting student discourse and social collaboration; and (v) challenges concerning the professional development of teachers. Each of these themes is described using direct quotes from the workshop artifacts, and implications for future research in argumentation are discussed. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 55: 5–18, 2018

Using virtual learning environments in bricolage mode for orchestrating learning situations across physical and virtual spaces

Teachers usually implement their pedagogical ideas in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in a continuous refinement approach also known as “bricolage”. Recently, different proposals have enabled the ubiquitous access to VLEs, thus extending the bricolage mode of operation to other learning spaces. However, such proposals tend to present several limitations for teachers to orchestrate learning situations conducted across different physical and virtual spaces. This paper presents an evaluation study that involved the across-spaces usage of Moodle in bricolage mode and learning buckets (configurable containers of learning artifacts) in multiple learning situations spanning five months in a course on Physical Education in the Natural Environment for pre-service teachers. The study followed a responsive evaluation model, in which we conducted an anticipatory data reduction using an existing orchestration framework (called “5 + 3 aspects”) for structuring data gathering and analysis. The results showed that learning buckets helped the teachers in the multiple aspects of orchestration, overcoming the limitations of alternative approaches in some specific orchestration aspects: helping the involved teachers to connect different physical and physical spaces, while supporting technologies and activities of their everyday practice, and transferring part of the orchestration load from teachers to students. The results also suggested lines of future improvement, including the awareness of outdoor activities.

IDEAS: A Qualitative Inquiry into Project-Based Learning

As waves of the Global Educational Reform Movement, what Sahlberg (2015) identifies as GERM, still ripple around the world pushing for competition, standardization, the focus on the core subjects, and test-based accountability some schools like IDEAS choose what Hargreaves and Shirley (2012) call The Forth Way towards inspiration and innovation with their project-based learning pedagogy. IDEAS is a small public high school in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and a member of Ted Sizer’s Coalition of Essential Schools (CES). Our qualitative inquiry explores the implications of project-based learning on IDEAS’ students, teachers, academic program and school community. Data came from direct observation, interviews, curriculum documents, and teaching and learning artifacts. Our research informs IDEAS about the impact of their project-based learning pedagogy and validates its significance as part of their curricular program. It demonstrates that democratic principles are at work in some US schools, despite so many instances to the contrary. In the age of GERM this single-case study provides research-based evidence that alternative pedagogical methods and curriculum programs are potentially viable alternatives to many of the curriculum practices commonly found in today’s schools.

Aprendizaje de idiomas «sin costuras»: Aprendizaje de segundas lenguas y redes sociales

This conceptual paper describes a language learning model that applies social media to foster contextualized and connected language learning in communities. The model emphasizes weaving together different forms of language learning activities that take place in different learning contexts to achieve seamless language learning. It promotes social interactions with social media about the learners’ day-to-day life using the targeted second or foreign language. The paper first identifies three key features of the language learning approach, namely, authenticity, contextualization and socialization. How these features are related to the communicative approach of language learning are subsequently explicated. This is followed by further explication on how the notion of seamless language learning could inform learning designers and learners in synergizing the desired characteristics of language learning together. Eventually, we propose the SMILLA (Social MedIa as Language Learning Artifacts) Framework to operationalize seamless language learning with the use of social media. A case of seamless language learning environment design known as MyCloud will be described to illustrate the practicality of the SMILLA Framework. Este artículo describe un modelo de aprendizaje de lenguas que se sirve de las redes sociales para promover un aprendizaje contextualizado y conectado en comunidades. El modelo propone la interconexión entre diferentes tipos de actividades de aprendizaje en contextos diversos con el objetivo de lograr un aprendizaje discontinuo. Promueve las interacciones sociales a través de los medios compartiendo aspectos de la vida cotidiana en la lengua meta. Este trabajo identifica en primer lugar aspectos clave del enfoque de aprendizaje tales como la autenticidad, la contextualización y la socialización, al tiempo que explica cómo se relacionan estos aspectos con el enfoque comunicativo en el aprendizaje de lenguas. A continuación se presenta una discusión acerca de cómo la noción de aprendizaje discontinuo puede orientar a los creadores de materiales, docentes y aprendientes en la sinergia de todas las características del aprendizaje de lenguas. Para concluir, se propone el modelo SMILLA (Redes sociales como instrumentos para el aprendizaje de lenguas) para poner en práctica la noción de aprendizaje discontinuo con la ayuda de las redes sociales. Los resultados de su aplicación sugieren un potencial efecto sobre los aprendientes, generando usuarios más activos en contextos socialmente significativos, preparados para la autorreflexión sobre el uso que hacen de esa lengua, y con una menor necesidad de intervención del docente.

Performance-Based Task Assessment Of Higher-Order Proficiencies In Redesigned STEM High Schools Of Higher-Order Proficiencies In Redesigned STEM High Schools

This study explored student abilities in applying conceptual knowledge when presented with structured performance tasks. Specifically, the study gauged proficiency in higher-order applications of students enrolled in earth and environmental science or biology. The student sample was drawn from a Redesigned STEM high school model where a tested performance assessment protocol was employed for the purposes of the investigation. It was determined that performance-based proficiency was not uniform within tasks and applications, but could be recognized through student artifacts of learning on a situational basis. Based on the findings of the study, several implications are highlighted.

Using Gamification and Mixed Reality Visualization to Improve Conceptual Understanding in ICT System Analysis and Design

This paper presents a research design and intervention that investigates how the use of mixed reality visualization and gamification can be applied to an ICT systems analysis and design course. The research focuses on a learning approach of an ICT modelling and design framework based on visual augmentation of traditional course content and class delivery. Assessment of the learning impact in regards to learners, system components and their interaction in system scenarios will be performed. Allowing learners to explore and discover information in the form of a gamified scavenger hunt that supports scaffolding learning chunks, aims to assist them towards a conceptual understanding of the solution. Educators can incorporate selected representations of key learning artefacts and resources in an augmented capacity using a variety of media such as 2d images, videos, graphics, simulations, and 3d models applied into the design process and promote active learning in the classroom.

A Structured Inquiry into a Digital Story

Schools have been islands isolated from mobile technologies for a long time. In Finland, schools are investing in mobile technologies with the aim of providing a tablet for each student. This trend enables classes to adopt practices where students not only use ready-made learning materials but generate content as well. This paper aims to investigate student-generated digital stories as learning artefacts through a case example from two chemistry classes in a primary school. After introducing a method of creating digital stories from a structured inquiry, the paper presents an in-depth analysis of a specific type of story, its construction and conceptual learning outcomes related to the story's topic (i.e., chemical reaction). The results indicate that storytelling based on a structured inquiry is suited for novice science learners. In the future, teaching visual communication skills and story scripting to students should be emphasised to make the stories more sophisticated.

Enhancing “Gero-Interest” Among Health Education Graduate Students

With the proportions and numbers of older adults increasing rapidly in the United States and worldwide, there is acute need for professionals with “gero-competency” and “gero-interest” in the spectrum of health and human service fields. We examine whether adding on gerontology content to an existing international health-focused service learning course would suffice to spark interest in gerontology and gero-focused careers among Master’s in Public Health students in Community Health Education. Currently, comparatively few graduate programs in public health education in the United States offer aging concentrations. We thus explore this alternative strategy. We used case study methodology to guide our assessment, which included content and thematic analyses of “artifacts of learning” and transcripts of in-depth interviews with five graduate students. Despite little prior exposure to gerontology and limited preparation with gerontology content, the students were able to competently analyze community aging issues. They recommended that aging-related courses with experiential opportunities be offered in health education curricula. Of the five students, three were not interested in a gero-focused career, one was open to the idea, and the other had found her niche in an aging-related position and enjoyed working in that environment. As the population ages, there is great need to spark students’ interest in aging-related careers. Adding on gerontology content to an existing health education course appeared less effective in sparking gero-interest, despite proven pedagogical approaches such as service learning. Encouraging students to take aging-focused courses with experiential learning components and offering more gerontology concentrations in Master’s in Public Health–level community health education programs may be more effective.

The construction of the universality of English within Saudi Arabian education contexts

ABSTRACTDiscourses of the universality of English and its role in individual mobility and social development abound in the literature; these discourses have contributed to the global spread of English and to the development of English Language Teaching as a profession. Despite the ubiquity of the discourses of the value and universality of English, there has been limited research on how these discourses unfold in local contexts, how these discourses are reproduced or appropriated, and how these are translated into teaching and learning artefacts (e.g. policies and textbooks) and practices by teachers and students. This paper explores the construction of the discourse of the universality and value of English within education policies, curricular documents, and textbooks used in Saudi Arabian schools, and how these discourses then play out within teacher/student interactions in a rural Bedouin-dominated classroom. Our aim is to contribute to the understanding of global English and its discourses taking a local, situated perspective.

VILLAGE—Virtual Immersive Language Learning and Gaming Environment: Immersion and presence

Abstract3D virtual worlds are promising for immersive learning in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Unlike English as a Second Language (ESL), EFL typically takes place in the learners’ home countries, and the potential of the language is limited by geography. Although learning contexts where English is spoken is important, in most EFL courses at the college level, EFL is taught by acquiring vocabularies, grammar and pragmatic features without contextual immersion. In this study, an immersive English learning environment in a 3D virtual world, OpenSimulator, was developed with two key learning artifacts, chatbot and time machine. A single‐factor, independent measures design was used to examines learners’ presence under four learning conditions: virtual learning environment without digital learning artifacts (VE), virtual learning environment with chatbot (VEC), virtual learning environment with time machine (VETM) and virtual learning environment with chatbot and time machine (VECTM). Three research questions emerging from the four learning conditions form the backbone of this study: (1) Does chatbot increase language learners’ presence in the immersive virtual English learning environment? (2) Does time machine increase language learners’ presence in the immersive virtual English learning environment? (3) Does the combined use of chatbot and time machine increase presence more than either learning artifact alone? The experimental results indicate that the chatbot and time machine increase the learners’ sense of immersion and presence. Best design practices should address how immersion and presence can be integrated into affordances of virtual worlds.

The Amazing Library Race:

Seeking to introduce first-year students to library resources and services in an engaging way, an orientation titled The Amazing Library Race (ALR) was developed and implemented at a university library. Informed by the pedagogy of problem-based learning, the ALR asks students to complete challenges regarding different departments and services. This study assesses this initiative’s success using observational and artifact-based data, addressing the challenging prospect of evaluating the impact of library orientation sessions. Two rubrics were developed to measure student involvement and student learning comprehension. More than 14 hours of in-class observations were used to track engagement, and 64 artifacts of student learning were collected and coded to evaluate learning comprehension. After coding, interrater reliability was established using the intraclass correlation coefficient to establish the validity of the ratings. This paper will outline these methodologies, present the results of the data analysis, and discuss the possibilities and difficulties of measuring student engagement in information literacy instruction centred upon active learning.

The Facebook Phenomenon for Collaborative Learning for University Studies

Abstract This article defines the shift in the concept and conditions of collaborative learning for university studies using the social networking tool Facebook and discusses the collaborative learning effect in terms of using Open Educational Resources (OER), creating learning artefacts and new generic competence development. In order to evaluate students’ learning through collaboration in Facebook, qualitative research method and survey of generic competencies based on the Tuning project framework (2003) were used. The data was collected through focus group interviews and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The qualitative research method was chosen because it provides information of how students collaborate and what experience they gained during the activities. First, Facebook online groups have been identified at three different levels at VMU. The Facebook first level group was the social networking of Vytautas Magnus University’s students and academic staff. The second level group was created for the department dealing with social sciences, and is called “Department of Social Science”. The third level group is “Education Service Management” within the Department of Education. The research was done at the third level group with the students of the “Education Service Management” study programme. As research results show, Facebook as a social network has been changing communication between students, by facilitating the exchange of information and knowledge. The research analyses Facebook in the context of undergraduate university studies, based upon the experience of Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) for using Facebook for university studies. It could be concluded that learning is about developing capabilities to think and to act. Learners using social networking tools for collaborative learning, act, provide feedback and peer-review, asses and rate information. Openness is based on the idea that knowledge is disseminated and shared freely for the benefit of society as a whole. University students collaborate online and learn by using and exchanging OER, as well as developing them as the artefacts of online collaborative learning. They influence task design by creating “educational resources” themselves.

A framework to evaluate the educational potential of a digital artefact for math learning

Abstract This article provides a methodology with two potential applications: to prove useful to maths teachers for analysing and evaluating the educational potential of different digital artefacts and to help designers of maths learning artefacts to evaluate their design during the implementation phase. The educational potential of an artefact is considered as an entity determined by actions and representations structure available within the artefact, the interpretation and behaviour of who uses it and the features of the activity in which it is used. The proposed methodology is based on the notions of affordance, narrative and cycle of expansive learning. The methodology has been applied on AlNuSet, a system designed for supporting the teaching and learning of algebra by means of modalities of interaction that are of visual, spatial and motor nature.